The Haunted Love

Chapter 3

Clayton made a scene just before they had left for the diner. With two electrified gloves, he emerged from the basement with a Cycloptopus and shocked it until it fell limp. Dipper had initially asked if he could help him, but he told him it was too dangerous. “Call me for dinner.” He said after disappointing Dipper. That is when Stan offered to take them out for pancakes.

Clayton returned down to his lab with the Cycloptopus still in his grip. He searched for something to keep it in, finding an old glass jar that still had its lid. He popped the lid off and gently slid the creature inside before twisting it shut. It squirmed a little inside, pressing its suction cups into the sides, its one eye gazing up at him angrily. He noticed it staring and shook his head towards it.

“Don’t even think about it.” He said to it as it moved around inside.

He heard the door open followed by a set of boots coming down the stairs. Sabrina paused at the end of the stairs. Clayton glanced over at her, but didn’t really take interest otherwise. She sat herself down on the couch and pulled her bag off. She noticed the Cycloptopus in the jar beside him squishing around against the glass.

“Is this how it’s going to be the whole time I’m here?” She asked. Clayton swiveled on his chair. She pulled out her journal and pen on her lap, opening it to a page and handing it to him. He obliged and examined the page. It was a drawing of her view from inside the diner. He recognized Mabel and Dipper sitting in the booth.

“So you have seen them.” Clayton started flipping through it. Her drawings were always well done. He never could draw that well, even if his journals did contain some. In a way, he blamed his Polydactyly for it. But that was just how he was.

Sabrina noticed him stop suddenly on a page as his eyes widened. It depicted a frozen landscape with a massive rocky cliff side, its rugged edges looked almost real. And then there was Clayton holding his hands over a makeshift fire. She looked over his shoulder at the drawing he was turning white towards. His hands were gripping its edges tightly.

“You remember that, don’t you?” Sabrina was tempting to ease him. Suddenly, Clayton slammed the journal shut and shoved it at her. She let out a grunt on the impact and watched Clayton get off his chair angrily. She held her journal close as her eyes went slowly up to his.

He paced back and forth for a minute before actually looking at his companion. Her eyes were towards the floor now. For some reason, he couldn’t quite look away. That moment in the journal was a tough one to get past. Sabrina and him were nearly freezing to death with not much to thrive on. He had done his best to make sure they made it through the night, even finding some k****e to light.

While they sat there, staring at the little flame flicker, she pulled out her journal and started to draw. Once she was done, she had shown it to him. He was impressed by her skills and noticed a few things she could change. It seemed like they had gotten closer that night. Clayton going as far to sharing his body heat with her when she started quivering. He was afraid to lose her – one of the only people he knew.

Seemed like they both had reminisced on that time together inside the dimensions. “I’m sorry.” Clayton spoke softly.

Sabrina looked up at him with teary eyes. “Then you do remember.”

Clayton nodded. “Of course I do. We were trapped together in some unknown world.”Sabrina sniffed as Clayton’s hand started rubbing on her back. “You don’t just forget that.”

Sabrina nodded before moving back. “But what now? Now that we are back to the dimension we grew up in, went to school in, had our lives in?”

Clayton turned away towards the portal gate. “Then we keep it that way.” He grabbed the wrench he had used on the lever and starting ripping its components out. He dug up the main cord and without hesitation, he pulled it. “There will be no more portal.”